D&J - Gratified Affair - 03/?
Gratified Affair
drake & josh. drake/mindy, josh/ofc. chapter three. 2987 words. general.
“Josh, she’s actually going to make me work,” Drake whined, his eyes growing wide at the thought.
prologue / chap 01 / chap 02
“You’re here to see me?” Drake asked incredulously. Mindy nodded in agreement as she set her backpack down on the oak dining room table. “What for?”
“Apparently, you made an appointment with the tutoring program at school,” she explained, brushing her hair behind her ear. Her silver stud earring shined in the sunlight from the window for a second, momentarily distracting him. “You know Drake I’m sort of surprised at you. But you know, they all say that admitting you have a problem is the first step.”
“Problem? Tutoring program?” he asked, confused by her words. She nodded again as she unzipped her backpack and began to unload its contents on the table. He recognized the English textbook he was supposed to use for Mrs. Hafer’s class and the dimming light bulb in his head started to grow brighter. “JOOOOOOOOSH!”
“What, what, what? What’s wrong?” Josh said, half-asking and half-yelling as he raced down the wooden staircase. Seeing there was no immediate problem as he ran the living room, he could only sigh. “Why is everything so urgent with you?”
“This is urgent!” Drake insisted as he pointed at Mindy. “She claims she’s here to tutor me and I can think of only one person who would take the time out to hire one for me.”
“You know dude, you should be grateful that I’m looking out for you - ”
“I can’t believe you would go behind my back and hire the creature - ”
“Mrs. Hafer is on the brink of failing you as it is. I know you don’t want to repeat her class - ”
“I’ll get by, I always do!”
Mindy listened to their words overlapping each other and brought her hand to her temple as she began to rub away the headache that was about to form. She wanted to be here about as much as Drake wanted her here, but she had a responsibility. Or at least she would if she could get her point across to them any time soon.
“Boys!” Mindy exclaimed as she put a hand on each other shoulders. She could tell they were coming dangerously close to wrestling and she knew that wouldn’t solve anything no matter how many times they had tried to convince her otherwise in the past. “Honestly, how can you hear yourselves over each other?” They didn’t answer her rhetorical question; they could only glare at each other as a quiet, angry steam started to build between them. She decided to press on anyway. “Josh, you called the tutoring center?”
“Yeah,” Josh answered, crossing his arms over his blue striped button down shirt. “Mrs. Hafer’s English project is worth almost half our grade and Drake needs help whether he admits it or not.” He pointed a look toward his step-brother, who could only scoff and roll his eyes.
“I’ll be fine,” Drake assured them as he spun on his heel. He walked around to the front of the couch and plopped down as he brought his feet up to rest on the coffee table’s clean surface. It became Josh’s turn to roll his own blue eyes as he moved to the front of the couch to be able to face Drake.
“Yeah, whatever dude. Look, I called the tutoring center because I know I can’t bail you out this time. I have to work on my own project and school and Helen said there was a chance of being able to increase my hours at The Premiere.” There was a pause as he let that reasoning sink in. “I was just trying to look out for you Drake.”
Drake sighed as he looked up at Josh’s face. “Okay man, I can appreciate that. But Mindy? Of all the tutors you had to pick, you chose her?”
“He didn’t choose me,” Mindy interrupted with an ice around the edges of her words. “I was assigned to work with you.”
“I’m kind of shocked Mindy,” Josh told her as he sat down in the beige armchair. “A couple months ago it was all I could do to get you guys in the same room together.”
“As of right now, I have a perfect record in helping the students that I tutor,” she explained as she leaned her waist against the back of the couch. “Everyone I’ve worked with has been able to raise their grade up at least one full letter after I’m done with them. I’ll admit that I had certain…doubts about working with Drake.” She stole a glance down at him only to be met with an amused smirk. “But now I see this is as more of a challenge than anything else.”
“So what, I’m just a puppet in your little tutoring scheme?” Drake asked, allowing himself to rest against the back of the cushy couch.
“It’s not a scheme! Belleview’s tutoring program helps out kids every day with their school and homework problems,” she replied indignantly, using her hands to prop herself on the back of the couch. It gave her the appearance that she was looming and Drake felt uneasiness settle over him. “Besides that, it looks extremely good on a college application to be involved with such a prestigious program.”
A look of confusion crossed Drake’s face, one that Josh had seen many times before. “It means ‘important’ bro.”
Annoyance replaced confusion as Drake shot a glare to Josh, who was obviously enjoying the situation that was being played out in front of him. “Thank you Josh,” Drake said sarcastically, overemphasizing his words. “You’ve done enough already, haven’t you?”
“So, should we get started?” Mindy asked, straightening herself out. She stuck her hands in the pockets of her denim skirt and made her way back toward the dining room table. “I’ve got a few books here to help teach you about the structure of writing a paper and a few different author biographies so you can pick an author you might find interesting.”
Josh moved over to sit on the couch next to his step-brother, who had a look of panic cross over his features. “C’mon bro, it won’t be so bad. The paper isn’t due for a month. With the way Mindy works, you’ll probably get it done in half the time.”
“Josh, she’s actually going to make me work,” Drake whined, his eyes growing wide at the thought. “Mindy’s going to suck all the fun out of my life and then what? I’ll just be a broken shell of guy. Do not let me be her puppet!”
“You need her, but she needs you too,” Josh pointed out.
“Yeah, for her puppet dancing pleasure,” Drake replied as Josh stood up from the couch. He let out a laugh as he turned to leave, but Drake grabbed onto his hand. “Where are you going? You can’t leave me alone with her!”
“I promised Lisa I’d hang out with her this afternoon,” he answered, yanking back his hand. “Let go of my hand!”
“Josh you have to stay! I’m begging you!” Drake told him, almost bringing himself to his knees. “You’re supposed to make sure she doesn’t make me do a little puppet dance or something crazy like that. She might do it too - she’s been in the looney bin. She’s seen things.”
Josh rolled his eyes and stuck his hands into his jeans pockets, for fear of being grabbed again. “You’ll be fine. See you later.” He walked passed the table and gave Mindy a little wave. “Bye Mindy.”
“See you later Josh,” she replied, still sorting through the material she’d brought over for Drake. Josh turned to give one last look at his step-brother and had to stifle laughter upon seeing Drake moving his hands as though he were controlling marionettes.
“Dance puppet, dance!”
--
Josh had left for a reason unknown to Mindy and she stood in the Parker-Nichols’ living room as silence filled the large space. Drake wasn’t making any attempts at conversation first; she cleared her throat and sucked it up to be the bigger person.
“So…I guess we should get started?” she asked, looking at the back of Drake’s head. He made a non-committal noise, shrugged his shoulders, and stood up from the sofa, walking around so that he was going in the direction of the large, wooden staircase.
“C’mon, let’s go upstairs,” he called out to her. She raised an eyebrow and gathered her books wordlessly. She caught up with him quickly as they reached the narrow hallway and followed him to the end where he breezily banged open the door to the bedroom that he and Josh shared. Mindy stopped in the doorway, taking stock of the huge room.
It’s not like she’d never been in here before; but it hadn’t seemed so long ago when she and Josh would cuddle on the ruddy looking sofa and alternate between watching chick flicks and old Bruce Lee movies. She remorsefully remembered the popcorn wars he would start by innocently flicking individual kernels at her, goading her until their bodies were twisted like pretzels into each other and she was giggling as he peppered her lips and neck with tiny kisses…
“You coming or what?” Drake asked, momentarily interrupting her little daydream. She hugged her books tighter to her chest as her lips turned downward into a frown.
“Is it okay that I’m in here?” Mindy questioned, the words coming out before she could censor them. He gave her a funny look that to read to her as ‘why not? ’ before his own mouth smirked. Yeah, like she was the first girl to ever step foot in here; because Drake knew in his own smug way that she certainly wouldn’t be the last.
“It’s fine, don’t worry,” he assured her as he opened to the bureau by Josh’s bed. He rifled through its contents as Mindy cautiously made her way in toward the sofa. When she had spread her books and papers out on the table, Drake had come down the stairs with a golf club in one hand a cup in the other.
“A golf club? What do you need that for?”
“Hey, you have your way of studying,” Drake said, gesturing toward the coffee table with his club. “And I have mine.”
Watching as he set the cup and golf ball down on the floor, Mindy rubbed at the side of her head again and sighed. She had a feeling that tutoring him would be a lot more difficult than she bargained for, but she was more than willing to rise to the occasion; it was in her nature to meet a challenge. She wasn’t going to allow herself to let Drake get the best of her, no matter how strong his own determination was.
--
Josh and Lisa exited the tiny yellow Volkswagen later that night and made their way up the neatly landscaped path to her front door. The day had been nothing short of being absolutely perfect and he felt as though he were walking on clouds instead of cold, hard pavement. Her hand was held in his and they reached the lighted front porch in a quiet silence.
“Well…I guess this is good night,” Josh said and mentally cringed; he hadn’t meant for that to sound lame out loud. Lisa merely smiled and shrugged with one of her shoulders as her hair fell over her eyes.
“Not necessarily. Do you want to come in? I don’t think my parents are home.”
The normal, adult thoughts of a teenage boy plagued his mind and ran rampant as he tried to think of an appropriate response. His mouth went slightly slack as he stuttered out a few “ums” and “ohs” while he ran a hand through his thick, dark curls.
“Is something wrong?” Lisa asked rhetorically, an amused smile playing at her lips. He sighed and gave a weak smile back to her.
“I’m just thinking.”
“About?”
“A lot of things, actually. I’m thinking about how great today and yesterday was and how awesome tomorrow is going to be even though we haven’t made plans yet, I know we’re probably going to see each other anyway. I’m thinking about how it’s kind of cold right now and going inside is a good idea, but is it too fast? Do I want to go inside because it’s cold or because you’re asking me? And then I think well yeah, of course I want to go inside because you asked me and I’m not sure what going inside implies because all I can really think about right now is how much I want to kiss you. Is that moving too fast? I don’t know if it is; I don’t think it is but these thoughts are running through my head that I’m not sure what to think anymore.”
Lisa stood still for a moment, still looking at him as she did before. He didn’t know what to do or what to say; everything had just sort of spilled out from his head through his mouth. Josh had always been one to over-think situations and tonight was no diff-
Her hands felt cold and loose around the back of his neck, making the tiny hairs stand tall. Josh couldn’t concentrate on that though when her lips connected with his and she tasted of spearmint and strawberries; a little sweet and sour, just like her. He had just started to bring her in closer, using his hands to guide the small of her back toward him when the front door opened and the bright foyer light shone on them.
“Ahh, what…” Lisa started as she quickly pulled away. Looking at the boy who stood in the doorway, she merely sighed. “Oh Gavin, it’s just you.”
“Hey Lisa. Hey Josh,” Gavin said in his usual bored, monotone. When Josh’s eyes adjusted to the light, it took him a moment to recognize his co-worker; he’d never actually seen him out of his Premiere uniform but there he was, dressed in a faded Led Zepplin t-shirt and black jeans. In looking over Gavin’s outfit, he realized something.
“Hey Gavin; aren’t you supposed to be working tonight?”
“I think you’re supposed to be working tonight.”
“No, I asked you to cover my shift so I could hang out with Lisa,” Josh reminded him as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“You scored a date with my sister? Nice,” Gavin commented, giving them an odd smile.
“God Gavin, you’re so weird,” Lisa interrupted, sighing again. She reached up and gave Josh a little kiss on the cheek. “Call me tomorrow okay? And don’t think too much about it.”
“Will do,” he replied, a faint blush creeping into his cheeks. She smiled back at him and left the two boys standing on the porch as she disappeared into the house. He looked at Gavin and broke the silence as he cleared his throat. “So…”
“I hear BF Wang’s has really good moo-shoo,” Gavin informed him, licking his lips.
“They do; I had it when Lisa and I went there for dinner.”
“Oh,” Gavin replied as his face fell in slight despair. He looked so sad and dismal under the pale porch light that Josh took pity on him.
“Gavin, do you want to go get some moo-shoo?”
“Okay.”
By the time Josh had dropped Gavin back off at home and driven back to his own house, it was a lot later than he was used to staying up for. He quietly entered the dark bedroom and turned on the tiny lamp on his night stand to see that Drake was already passed out in his loft bed, oblivious to everything as he quietly snored. Grabbing his pajamas, Josh turned the light back off and made his way toward the bathroom as he very tiredly got ready for bed.
--
They were angry words and flushed cheeks. He couldn’t exactly tell what they were saying, but Drake was irritated like he usually was conversing with the Creature. They stood practically nose to nose; close enough that he could see the flecks of gold in Mindy’s dark brown eyes and he had a feeling she had already mentally calculated the number of freckles sprinkled across his cheeks.
There was noise, lots of it, but Drake felt as though they were under water even though they were standing in front of the dilapidated couch in his bedroom. Everything was coming fast toward him even though his own movements were stunted and slow-like.
And that’s when things got really weird, but they felt so impossibly perfect. Drake had closed his eyes and everything had gone dark, but he felt with much more intensity. Mindy’s lips on his and her hands tugging at the ends of his hair while his hands stretched out over her back and fisted in her bright pink polo. Her taste consumed him, filled his senses and twisted around his mind while grabbing at his sanity.
This was wrong, wrong, wrong, very mind-numbingly wrong.
But they pawed at each other, clawed at blushed flesh, and bit at kiss swollen lips. If this was wrong, he wanted nothing in the world to be anywhere in the vicinity of being right.
Drake’s eyes flew open and adjusted to the moonlight that was streaming through the window near his bed. He felt a cold sweat beginning to layer over his skin and the comforter was too heavy for his liking. He kicked it off and looked around the room, trying to get some semblance of his surroundings. The normal happenings of what went on at three am greeted him: Josh snoring, the dehumidifier humming softly, the clock across the room ticking the minutes by quietly. His heart beat slowed to its regular pace as he flipped over on his flat stomach and buried his head in the warm pillow.
It was just a dream…just a dream.
--
chapter 04 | an understanding
drake & josh. drake/mindy, josh/ofc. chapter three. 2987 words. general.
“Josh, she’s actually going to make me work,” Drake whined, his eyes growing wide at the thought.
prologue / chap 01 / chap 02
“You’re here to see me?” Drake asked incredulously. Mindy nodded in agreement as she set her backpack down on the oak dining room table. “What for?”
“Apparently, you made an appointment with the tutoring program at school,” she explained, brushing her hair behind her ear. Her silver stud earring shined in the sunlight from the window for a second, momentarily distracting him. “You know Drake I’m sort of surprised at you. But you know, they all say that admitting you have a problem is the first step.”
“Problem? Tutoring program?” he asked, confused by her words. She nodded again as she unzipped her backpack and began to unload its contents on the table. He recognized the English textbook he was supposed to use for Mrs. Hafer’s class and the dimming light bulb in his head started to grow brighter. “JOOOOOOOOSH!”
“What, what, what? What’s wrong?” Josh said, half-asking and half-yelling as he raced down the wooden staircase. Seeing there was no immediate problem as he ran the living room, he could only sigh. “Why is everything so urgent with you?”
“This is urgent!” Drake insisted as he pointed at Mindy. “She claims she’s here to tutor me and I can think of only one person who would take the time out to hire one for me.”
“You know dude, you should be grateful that I’m looking out for you - ”
“I can’t believe you would go behind my back and hire the creature - ”
“Mrs. Hafer is on the brink of failing you as it is. I know you don’t want to repeat her class - ”
“I’ll get by, I always do!”
Mindy listened to their words overlapping each other and brought her hand to her temple as she began to rub away the headache that was about to form. She wanted to be here about as much as Drake wanted her here, but she had a responsibility. Or at least she would if she could get her point across to them any time soon.
“Boys!” Mindy exclaimed as she put a hand on each other shoulders. She could tell they were coming dangerously close to wrestling and she knew that wouldn’t solve anything no matter how many times they had tried to convince her otherwise in the past. “Honestly, how can you hear yourselves over each other?” They didn’t answer her rhetorical question; they could only glare at each other as a quiet, angry steam started to build between them. She decided to press on anyway. “Josh, you called the tutoring center?”
“Yeah,” Josh answered, crossing his arms over his blue striped button down shirt. “Mrs. Hafer’s English project is worth almost half our grade and Drake needs help whether he admits it or not.” He pointed a look toward his step-brother, who could only scoff and roll his eyes.
“I’ll be fine,” Drake assured them as he spun on his heel. He walked around to the front of the couch and plopped down as he brought his feet up to rest on the coffee table’s clean surface. It became Josh’s turn to roll his own blue eyes as he moved to the front of the couch to be able to face Drake.
“Yeah, whatever dude. Look, I called the tutoring center because I know I can’t bail you out this time. I have to work on my own project and school and Helen said there was a chance of being able to increase my hours at The Premiere.” There was a pause as he let that reasoning sink in. “I was just trying to look out for you Drake.”
Drake sighed as he looked up at Josh’s face. “Okay man, I can appreciate that. But Mindy? Of all the tutors you had to pick, you chose her?”
“He didn’t choose me,” Mindy interrupted with an ice around the edges of her words. “I was assigned to work with you.”
“I’m kind of shocked Mindy,” Josh told her as he sat down in the beige armchair. “A couple months ago it was all I could do to get you guys in the same room together.”
“As of right now, I have a perfect record in helping the students that I tutor,” she explained as she leaned her waist against the back of the couch. “Everyone I’ve worked with has been able to raise their grade up at least one full letter after I’m done with them. I’ll admit that I had certain…doubts about working with Drake.” She stole a glance down at him only to be met with an amused smirk. “But now I see this is as more of a challenge than anything else.”
“So what, I’m just a puppet in your little tutoring scheme?” Drake asked, allowing himself to rest against the back of the cushy couch.
“It’s not a scheme! Belleview’s tutoring program helps out kids every day with their school and homework problems,” she replied indignantly, using her hands to prop herself on the back of the couch. It gave her the appearance that she was looming and Drake felt uneasiness settle over him. “Besides that, it looks extremely good on a college application to be involved with such a prestigious program.”
A look of confusion crossed Drake’s face, one that Josh had seen many times before. “It means ‘important’ bro.”
Annoyance replaced confusion as Drake shot a glare to Josh, who was obviously enjoying the situation that was being played out in front of him. “Thank you Josh,” Drake said sarcastically, overemphasizing his words. “You’ve done enough already, haven’t you?”
“So, should we get started?” Mindy asked, straightening herself out. She stuck her hands in the pockets of her denim skirt and made her way back toward the dining room table. “I’ve got a few books here to help teach you about the structure of writing a paper and a few different author biographies so you can pick an author you might find interesting.”
Josh moved over to sit on the couch next to his step-brother, who had a look of panic cross over his features. “C’mon bro, it won’t be so bad. The paper isn’t due for a month. With the way Mindy works, you’ll probably get it done in half the time.”
“Josh, she’s actually going to make me work,” Drake whined, his eyes growing wide at the thought. “Mindy’s going to suck all the fun out of my life and then what? I’ll just be a broken shell of guy. Do not let me be her puppet!”
“You need her, but she needs you too,” Josh pointed out.
“Yeah, for her puppet dancing pleasure,” Drake replied as Josh stood up from the couch. He let out a laugh as he turned to leave, but Drake grabbed onto his hand. “Where are you going? You can’t leave me alone with her!”
“I promised Lisa I’d hang out with her this afternoon,” he answered, yanking back his hand. “Let go of my hand!”
“Josh you have to stay! I’m begging you!” Drake told him, almost bringing himself to his knees. “You’re supposed to make sure she doesn’t make me do a little puppet dance or something crazy like that. She might do it too - she’s been in the looney bin. She’s seen things.”
Josh rolled his eyes and stuck his hands into his jeans pockets, for fear of being grabbed again. “You’ll be fine. See you later.” He walked passed the table and gave Mindy a little wave. “Bye Mindy.”
“See you later Josh,” she replied, still sorting through the material she’d brought over for Drake. Josh turned to give one last look at his step-brother and had to stifle laughter upon seeing Drake moving his hands as though he were controlling marionettes.
“Dance puppet, dance!”
--
Josh had left for a reason unknown to Mindy and she stood in the Parker-Nichols’ living room as silence filled the large space. Drake wasn’t making any attempts at conversation first; she cleared her throat and sucked it up to be the bigger person.
“So…I guess we should get started?” she asked, looking at the back of Drake’s head. He made a non-committal noise, shrugged his shoulders, and stood up from the sofa, walking around so that he was going in the direction of the large, wooden staircase.
“C’mon, let’s go upstairs,” he called out to her. She raised an eyebrow and gathered her books wordlessly. She caught up with him quickly as they reached the narrow hallway and followed him to the end where he breezily banged open the door to the bedroom that he and Josh shared. Mindy stopped in the doorway, taking stock of the huge room.
It’s not like she’d never been in here before; but it hadn’t seemed so long ago when she and Josh would cuddle on the ruddy looking sofa and alternate between watching chick flicks and old Bruce Lee movies. She remorsefully remembered the popcorn wars he would start by innocently flicking individual kernels at her, goading her until their bodies were twisted like pretzels into each other and she was giggling as he peppered her lips and neck with tiny kisses…
“You coming or what?” Drake asked, momentarily interrupting her little daydream. She hugged her books tighter to her chest as her lips turned downward into a frown.
“Is it okay that I’m in here?” Mindy questioned, the words coming out before she could censor them. He gave her a funny look that to read to her as ‘why not? ’ before his own mouth smirked. Yeah, like she was the first girl to ever step foot in here; because Drake knew in his own smug way that she certainly wouldn’t be the last.
“It’s fine, don’t worry,” he assured her as he opened to the bureau by Josh’s bed. He rifled through its contents as Mindy cautiously made her way in toward the sofa. When she had spread her books and papers out on the table, Drake had come down the stairs with a golf club in one hand a cup in the other.
“A golf club? What do you need that for?”
“Hey, you have your way of studying,” Drake said, gesturing toward the coffee table with his club. “And I have mine.”
Watching as he set the cup and golf ball down on the floor, Mindy rubbed at the side of her head again and sighed. She had a feeling that tutoring him would be a lot more difficult than she bargained for, but she was more than willing to rise to the occasion; it was in her nature to meet a challenge. She wasn’t going to allow herself to let Drake get the best of her, no matter how strong his own determination was.
--
Josh and Lisa exited the tiny yellow Volkswagen later that night and made their way up the neatly landscaped path to her front door. The day had been nothing short of being absolutely perfect and he felt as though he were walking on clouds instead of cold, hard pavement. Her hand was held in his and they reached the lighted front porch in a quiet silence.
“Well…I guess this is good night,” Josh said and mentally cringed; he hadn’t meant for that to sound lame out loud. Lisa merely smiled and shrugged with one of her shoulders as her hair fell over her eyes.
“Not necessarily. Do you want to come in? I don’t think my parents are home.”
The normal, adult thoughts of a teenage boy plagued his mind and ran rampant as he tried to think of an appropriate response. His mouth went slightly slack as he stuttered out a few “ums” and “ohs” while he ran a hand through his thick, dark curls.
“Is something wrong?” Lisa asked rhetorically, an amused smile playing at her lips. He sighed and gave a weak smile back to her.
“I’m just thinking.”
“About?”
“A lot of things, actually. I’m thinking about how great today and yesterday was and how awesome tomorrow is going to be even though we haven’t made plans yet, I know we’re probably going to see each other anyway. I’m thinking about how it’s kind of cold right now and going inside is a good idea, but is it too fast? Do I want to go inside because it’s cold or because you’re asking me? And then I think well yeah, of course I want to go inside because you asked me and I’m not sure what going inside implies because all I can really think about right now is how much I want to kiss you. Is that moving too fast? I don’t know if it is; I don’t think it is but these thoughts are running through my head that I’m not sure what to think anymore.”
Lisa stood still for a moment, still looking at him as she did before. He didn’t know what to do or what to say; everything had just sort of spilled out from his head through his mouth. Josh had always been one to over-think situations and tonight was no diff-
Her hands felt cold and loose around the back of his neck, making the tiny hairs stand tall. Josh couldn’t concentrate on that though when her lips connected with his and she tasted of spearmint and strawberries; a little sweet and sour, just like her. He had just started to bring her in closer, using his hands to guide the small of her back toward him when the front door opened and the bright foyer light shone on them.
“Ahh, what…” Lisa started as she quickly pulled away. Looking at the boy who stood in the doorway, she merely sighed. “Oh Gavin, it’s just you.”
“Hey Lisa. Hey Josh,” Gavin said in his usual bored, monotone. When Josh’s eyes adjusted to the light, it took him a moment to recognize his co-worker; he’d never actually seen him out of his Premiere uniform but there he was, dressed in a faded Led Zepplin t-shirt and black jeans. In looking over Gavin’s outfit, he realized something.
“Hey Gavin; aren’t you supposed to be working tonight?”
“I think you’re supposed to be working tonight.”
“No, I asked you to cover my shift so I could hang out with Lisa,” Josh reminded him as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“You scored a date with my sister? Nice,” Gavin commented, giving them an odd smile.
“God Gavin, you’re so weird,” Lisa interrupted, sighing again. She reached up and gave Josh a little kiss on the cheek. “Call me tomorrow okay? And don’t think too much about it.”
“Will do,” he replied, a faint blush creeping into his cheeks. She smiled back at him and left the two boys standing on the porch as she disappeared into the house. He looked at Gavin and broke the silence as he cleared his throat. “So…”
“I hear BF Wang’s has really good moo-shoo,” Gavin informed him, licking his lips.
“They do; I had it when Lisa and I went there for dinner.”
“Oh,” Gavin replied as his face fell in slight despair. He looked so sad and dismal under the pale porch light that Josh took pity on him.
“Gavin, do you want to go get some moo-shoo?”
“Okay.”
By the time Josh had dropped Gavin back off at home and driven back to his own house, it was a lot later than he was used to staying up for. He quietly entered the dark bedroom and turned on the tiny lamp on his night stand to see that Drake was already passed out in his loft bed, oblivious to everything as he quietly snored. Grabbing his pajamas, Josh turned the light back off and made his way toward the bathroom as he very tiredly got ready for bed.
--
They were angry words and flushed cheeks. He couldn’t exactly tell what they were saying, but Drake was irritated like he usually was conversing with the Creature. They stood practically nose to nose; close enough that he could see the flecks of gold in Mindy’s dark brown eyes and he had a feeling she had already mentally calculated the number of freckles sprinkled across his cheeks.
There was noise, lots of it, but Drake felt as though they were under water even though they were standing in front of the dilapidated couch in his bedroom. Everything was coming fast toward him even though his own movements were stunted and slow-like.
And that’s when things got really weird, but they felt so impossibly perfect. Drake had closed his eyes and everything had gone dark, but he felt with much more intensity. Mindy’s lips on his and her hands tugging at the ends of his hair while his hands stretched out over her back and fisted in her bright pink polo. Her taste consumed him, filled his senses and twisted around his mind while grabbing at his sanity.
This was wrong, wrong, wrong, very mind-numbingly wrong.
But they pawed at each other, clawed at blushed flesh, and bit at kiss swollen lips. If this was wrong, he wanted nothing in the world to be anywhere in the vicinity of being right.
Drake’s eyes flew open and adjusted to the moonlight that was streaming through the window near his bed. He felt a cold sweat beginning to layer over his skin and the comforter was too heavy for his liking. He kicked it off and looked around the room, trying to get some semblance of his surroundings. The normal happenings of what went on at three am greeted him: Josh snoring, the dehumidifier humming softly, the clock across the room ticking the minutes by quietly. His heart beat slowed to its regular pace as he flipped over on his flat stomach and buried his head in the warm pillow.
It was just a dream…just a dream.
--
chapter 04 | an understanding